There's Absolutely No Excuse ::(John Ryan)

[Eric Suhr]

Big guy with a huge heart. He was a fixture at the Skylands' annual ride to the Matheny School and his ability to connect with the residents was wonderful. I recall that he also volunteered at Camp Najeda (sp?), a camp for kids with diabetes. He was a diabetic himself, which made his endurance riding accomplishments even more impressive. Eric "Good judgment is a result of experience. Experience is a result of bad judgment." 
-------- Original message --------From: Don Eilenberger <deilenberger at gmail.com> Date: 2/4/21  8:19 PM  (GMT-05:00) To: rtrendowski at verizon.net, njsbmwr at casano.com Subject: Re: There's Absolutely No Excuse ::(John Ryan) 
    For newer members of the club who don't know about John, he was
      first and foremost a great club member, always enthusiastic about
      anything the club wanted to do and often the only one to ride to a
      meeting in major snow storms. John didn't believe in cars, and
      didn't own one.
    
    John came to the club after answering an ad I'd run in the
      Internet BMW Riders marketplace looking for a seat pan for an
      early K-bike.  He'd recently inherited a K75 from his uncle, and
      it came with some spare parts.  He insisted on bringing it down to
      me - and he showed up late one night with it, refusing anything in
      return. We hung out in my garage for a few hours talking bikes and
      rides.  At the time, John hadn't found out about endurance
      riding.  He ended up joining the club after our meeting, and told
      people he finally found a group of people with the same passion
      for riding that he had.
    John accompanied me to a Square Route Rally one year, where I
      introduced him to a few people, most significantly Jim Shaw who
      had recently completed a 50CC (coast to coast in less than 50
      hours) - one of the first Ironbutt association challenges.  John
      and Jim ended up talking late into the night, and by morning John
      was hooked, and he and Jim became fast friends. I think Jim looked
      at him as the son he'd never had.
    That was the start of John's passion for IronButt challenges,
      both existing and new ones he came up with.  John quickly became a
      star in the endurance riding community and had completed a number
      of legendary rides, and came up with a number of challenges that
      haven't been broken. The book is John talking about riding and
      some of the fun he had doing outrageous challenges, and as Roger
      mentioned - people who became close to John through his love of
      riding.  John and I remained close friends until his untimely
      death - I'd talked with him about 2 days before on some GPS things
      we were looking at.  He was on his way to our 3-Club-Rumble when
      he had the accident that killed him.  
    
    As far as John's writing - he wrote a number of articles that
      premiered in our newsletter, later to be shared on the Internet,
      and one or two eventually in this book. A few of his best stories
      (IMHO) only appeared in the club newsletter, one in particular
      about a Super-Bowl weekend, spending time transporting bets in the
      parking lot of the stadium (if I remember right in Texas) to some
      bookies from people attending the game.
    
    When we have finally a person to person meeting, I have a copy of
      the book I'd be happy to loan out (provided it is returned...) but
      I'd suggest that the book is well worth the small money that
      Aerostich is asking for it, and I'd encourage you to buy it.
    John and I shared the birthday of June 24th - and it became a
      tradition to get together on our birthdays, leading to somewhat
      epic rides he did just to get to dinner.
    Jim McFadden has a wonderful "typical" John story - that never
      made it much beyond our club.. Jimmy, if you're reading this how
      about sharing it?
    
    Don
    
    On 2/4/2021 6:25 PM, Roger Trendowski
      via NJSBMWR wrote:
    
    
      
      Dennis
        ... thanks for spreading the word..  Its an excellent book with
        sections written by friends. All writers described adventures
        with John... all well written.  I had no idea that john was such
        a good writer too..   If he only stayed in one place long enough
        to write.
        
        
        Roger t 
          
          
          -----Original
            Message-----
            From: rds335i <rds335i at gmail.com>
            To: njsbmwr at casano.com
            Sent: Thu, Feb 4, 2021 5:43 pm
            Subject: There's Absolutely No Excuse ::(John Ryan)
            
            
            
            https://www.aerostich.com/there-s-absolutely-no-excuse.html
            
            
            
            
            
            Regards, RD Swanson
            
          
        
      
    
    -- 
Don Eilenberger
deilenberger at gmail.com
  

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